Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method of subtitling.
Description of the Prior Art
The “background” description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present invention.
In the film industry, a film typically provides a linear narrative over the course of 2 or 3 hours, following the action and dialogue laid out in a script. During editing, specific shots and specific performances of dialogue are selected by the director.
The result is a film in which each line of dialogue has a predetermined start and end point within the course of the film.
The director can also decide how subtitles will be presented to viewers of the film for whom a dubbed language is not available; a translation of the script into such a language can be provided, and the director can provide artistic input into the timing, breakup and placement of subtitles to convey both the information and emotional tone of the film as they see fit.
By contrast, in the video game industry a game typically provides an environment within which a user follows a loose narrative at a pace of their own choosing whilst exploring other environmental features or following a potentially large number of secondary narratives in parallel. The effective duration of the game may be in the order of 30 or 40 hours, and the order in which action and dialogue are presented is in large part a consequence of the users actions.
Consequently there is typically a much larger amount of dialogue within a videogame than within a film, and the dialogue is typically presented in response to user driven events rather than being part of a linear film under the direct supervision of a director.
Furthermore, particularly in modern games where there is an expectation that the game world is as richly complex as the real world, it is often necessary to provide a large number of variations of dialogue for the same ‘scene’ so that a user does not become conscious of dialogue repetition when revisiting a key character many times (such as a shopkeeper), or individually encountering a number of non-player characters of a similar class (such as guards).
The result is that the script and corresponding recorded dialogue for a videogame is much larger than for a film, highly fragmented and typically event driven.
Consequently, generating subtitles in another language for the recorded dialogue can be arduous, and because much of the dialogue is only presented in response to specific events, rather than simply being part of a linear playback, it can be extremely burdensome to validate the presentation of the subtitles for each line of dialogue in each supported language.
The present invention seeks to mitigate or alleviate the above problem.